Abstract

Joseph Smith Junior, founder of the Mormon faith, presented himself to America and the world as a prophet with the same powers as the widely known prophetic figures of the Bible. Like Moses and Elijah, he made God's will known to humankind. Before assuming this role, Smith had used divining rods and then seer stones to find underground water, buried treasure, lost items, and stray livestock. This thesis charts Joseph Smith's progression from rodsman to seer to prophet.

For the most part, I present Joseph Smith's divinatory development as he himself experienced it. Dowsing with a rod, seeing things in stones, and receiving heavenly revelations were as real to Smith as harvesting wheat. In order to understand his progression from rodsman to seer to prophet, one must first understand his worldview. The mental universe of early American water witches and village seers forms one of the historical and cultural contexts in which Joseph Smith developed his divinatory abilities.

Conclusion

The thesis that Joseph Smith progressed from rodsman to seer to prophet does not depend on the view one takes of him. Those who accept him as conduit for God's word will see his development in terms of providence and divine revelation. Those who accept Joseph as a deluded but sincere religious leader will see his development in terms of a progression that made sense to him within his culture and personal belief system. Those who consider Joseph a fraud—whether pious or conniving—will see his progression as a series of logical moves in a hidden agenda. And, finally, that class of evangelisitic Christians who prefer to view Mormonism as a Satanic dispensation may view Joseph's divinatory development as an objective reality by substituting Satan for God as the dispenser of Joseph's gifts. Regardless of one's viewpoint, the central thesis holds.